ReviewAmerican journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council2021
What is normal, healthy growth? Global health, human biology, and parental perspectives.
Review in American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Vegetarian Diet and Dietary Intake, Health, and Nutritional Status in Infants, Children, and Adolescents: A Systematic Review.Nutrients · 2025Pooled it
- Toddler diet quality: a factor associated with childhood growth?International journal of obesity (2005) · 2026Article
- Do Anthropometric Health Risk Indicators of South African Primary School Children Require National Growth Charts? Insights from the NW-CHILD Study.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Systematic Search of Height and Weight Changes of Exclusively Breastfed Infants Until 1 Year of age: A Contribution from the ConcePTION Project.Clinical pharmacokinetics · 2025Review
- Elucidation of Factors Affecting Anterior Occlusion in Primary Dentition Based on the Japan Environment and Children's Study.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Article
- Should a single growth standard be used to judge the nutritional status of children under age 5 years globally? No.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2024Article
- Evaluating the Validity of International Standards of Height, Weight, and Body Mass Index on Jordanian Children and Adolescents.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Global relevance of MGRS growth standards: the case of India.BMJ paediatrics open · 2024Review
- Post-malnutrition growth and its associations with child survival and non-communicable disease risk: a secondary analysis of the Malawi 'ChroSAM' cohort.Public health nutrition · 2023Article
- From growth charts to growth status: how concepts of optimal growth and tempo influence the interpretation of growth measurements.Annals of human biology · 2023Review
- Development of birthweight and length for gestational age and sex references in Yucatan, Mexico.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2022Article
- How Is Context Addressed in Growth Monitoring? A Comparison of the Tanzanian, Indian, and Dutch Manuals.Current developments in nutrition · 2022Article
- Weight gain in children from birth to 10 years on antiretroviral treatment.Southern African journal of HIV medicine · 2022Article
- Socioeconomic impacts on Andean adolescents' growth: Variation between households, between communities and over time.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2022Article
- Timing of Complementary Feeding and Infant Growth Trajectories in Prospective Cohort Studies: A Systematized Review and Analysis of Socioecological Variation.Ecology of food and nutritionReview
- Mechanistic Association of Hepatoblastoma with Cerebral Palsy: A Narrative Review.Saudi journal of medicine & medical sciencesReview
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesThe widespread variation seen in human growth globally stands at odds with the global health perspective that young child growth should not vary across populations if nutritional, environmental and care needs are met. This paper: (1) evaluates the idea that a single standard of "healthy" growth characterizes children under age 5, (2) discusses how variation from this standard is viewed in global health, in human biology and by parents, and (3) explores how views of "normal" growth shape biomedical and parental responses.
methodsThis paper reviews the anthropological, public health and clinical literature on the nature of child growth and the applicability of World Health Organization Multicenter Growth Reference Study growth standards across contexts.
resultsThe considerable variability in child growth across contexts makes it unlikely that any one framework, with issues of sample selection and representativeness, can serve as the model of healthy growth. Global health, human biology and parents differ in the emphasis they place on heredity versus environmental context in understanding this variability, but human biologists and parents tend to view a wider range of growth as "normal." Since both biomedicine and parents base their care decisions on their perceptions of normal, healthy growth, the comparative framework used has important implications for medical treatment and feeding practices.
conclusionsA more nuanced approach that incorporates the biology of growth and its association with health outcomes across contexts is critical to identify patterns of healthy growth and to avoid over-reliance on a single standard that may pathologize variability.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.